Some recipes can transport you to another place. This Mediterranean tomato-cucumber salad does it for me. One bite, and I’m back in Greece.
When I traveled to Greece, I discovered salads unlike the ones I knew at home. No lettuce. No heavy dressing. Just big chunks of ripe tomato, salty olives, crisp cucumbers and an extravagantly large slab of feta, all drizzled with really good olive oil. So simple. So ridiculously good.
My Mediterranean tomato-cucumber salad is an homage to those Greek salads from many moons ago. I use the freshest tomatoes I can find. For this batch, multicolored cherry tomatoes and vine-ripened tomatoes made the color out of sight. Small cucumbers give me plenty of crunch without the fuss of scooping out seeds.
Then comes a whole jar of Kalamata olives and a generous helping of feta. I am not shy about either. The dressing is just good olive oil and a little brine from the olive jar.
Ready in a flash, this is a salad Jon requests on repeat. I make and portion it ahead of time and it stays delicious for 3 to 4 days.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 cups chopped assorted tomatoes
- 2 cups cucumbers, halved and sliced
- 1 9.5 oz. jar kalamata olives (plus 2 Tbsp. olive brine)
- ½ red onion, sliced
- ¼ c. good olive oil
- 6 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
- Kosher salt
- Fresh cracked black pepper
Instructions
- There is really nothing to this salad beyond the slicing and chopping. But one key step is to salt the veggies as you layer them in the bowl. I slice up the cucumbers first and give them a lite sprinkle of kosher salt to help bring out the cucumber flavor and start to release some delicious juices.
- Next add your chopped and diced tomatoes (use a variety for great color and texture). Salt your tomato layer.
- Add a whole drained jar of pitted kalamata olives and the sliced red onion. Crumble the feta cheese generously on top.
- Pour the olive oil over the top and add 2 Tbsp. olive brine reserved from the jar. Finish with several cranks of your pepper mill, depending on how much you like pepper. We like a lot!
- Give everything a good toss.
Serve right away with crostini for a simple lunch, or alongside grilled meat, burgers or sandwiches. I also portion it into covered containers for weekday lunches. The vegetables soften and the salad gets juicier as it sits, which is part of what I love about it.
